Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Animation Appreciation: Introduction

It's time for a new blog series at Pterobat. "Animation Appreciation" will be a series of short essays about my favourite animated works.

With animation, I have no interest in entering the profession, so I just address the media as a fan. My interest always comes from the writing and characters before the animation quality and art design, though I also take visuals into account when discussing a series's appeal.

At the same time, I have a little bit of critical thinking skill, so I'll only be naming those cartoons that I have actual respect for, leaving out some favourites of mine that don't have enough in the way of perceived quality. Distinguishing between love and respect is a useful tool, and both things can exist independently when it comes to interest in a work.

However, the series still won't serve as a professional or historical overview of the animated medium, as many personalized lists accidentally do. I'll be missing what I know are several important works simply because I don't have a personal preference for them.

I'll discuss my reasons for enjoying each series, and address some of the nerd debates related to each work. There will be a rough sense of rank here, but only rough: those works that demand a higher place will get it, but this won't be done in numerical order, except that there is a number one and a number two.

The term "animation" will cover cel, computer, and stop motion, include TV, film, and direct-to-video material, and cover works from multiple countries. I went through my "anime is superior" phase years ago, and now try to pretend it didn't exist. These days, I don't believe in focusing on the need for change in any country's animation at the expense of enjoying what's already there.

Unfortunately, I'm also seriously out of the loop on anime and manga, and have a list of at least fifty works that I haven't yet gotten around to seeing yet. So if it comes out that there seems to be a lack of anime for a geek talking about animation, that's the reason why. I also haven't gone far beyond Japan and North America, though I wish I had. Because both of these things will change in the near future, I'm leaving this series open-ended.

Any other writing projects that I've committed to will still continue to be written at their regular rate.

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